


Four Times Gwarha Built a Bridge of Words (and One Time He Built a Cage)

by misura



Category: Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-04 09:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12767820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Ettin Gwarha loves a liar. (This is true.)





	Four Times Gwarha Built a Bridge of Words (and One Time He Built a Cage)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trobadora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trobadora/gifts).



.01

To offer the option to any other human would have felt distasteful - as distasteful as it had been to observe young men losing sight of their honor, their purpose, inflicting pain where none was required, because the liar had spoken truth at last.

Gwarha had experienced an odd mix of emotions at the realization. Relief, that it was over. Regret, that he would no more see the liar at work. A sense of dissatisfaction, that this was how it ended.

Life was not a hero play, where the ending was final, and thereby satisfying.

"Thank you for your kind offer," Sanders Nicholas said. "Unfortunately, I have no wish to die."

Gwarha had know the answer would be thus. It was why he had suggested the offer be made, or part of the reason, at least. "You think that is unfortunate? Why?"

A willingness to take the option might have been a fortunate thing (for Sanders Nicholas, not for Ettin Gwarha) had it been present earlier, before the truth had been spilled.

Now, it represented only a kindness, a courtesy, offered to one whose usefulness had ended.

_But what of your lies, Sanders Nicholas? If you heal, if you stay, will you lie again?_

_It is my thought that you will, and I would be there, to see._

"All of this - " Sanders Nicholas gestured to the walls surrounding them " - it's not much of a life, is it? Even if you'd let me have access to books, to work, I'm still going to be a prisoner."

Gwarha nearly smiled. Any of the younger men, he thought, would have missed it. The lie. The liar showing himself, already. Perhaps he had never been defeated at all. Perhaps in the mouth of a liar, even the truth might be turned into something else.

"You wish to leave?" he asked, adding, because cruelty was distasteful, "To go outside? We will not permit you to go home, but outside is possible. I would willingly take you, if you wished it."

Sanders Nicholas gazed at him, his face the mask of the liar and said, "I wish it."

 

.02

"The stone reminded me of your eyes," Gwarha said, feeling a small thrill at the ease of the lie.

_I would have you wear this, to show to all that I value you, and that you value me in turn, enough to openly wear my gifts, where people might see them and know of how things are between us two._

Nicholas inspected the bracelet, turning it this and that way in the light. "And what aspect of me does the tli remind you of? Should I feel flattered, or offended?"

Gwarha shrugged. The question was without relevance. He and Nicholas would never fight, as two warriors whose blood had grown too hot might. "Even as the other people in the house are fools and would seek to drive it out or even kill it, the tli will find a place to make itself comfortable. Even as the food stores are guarded, the tli will find a way to fill its belly."

Of course, only in animal plays would anyone be so foolish as to seek to wage war on the tli.

"A survivor. " Nicholas chuckled. "Well, that's true enough. Flattered it is, then."

 

.03

The human lack of fur made grooming a matter of ha-ikun. Gwarha was pleased to have found brushes suitable for human fur, at least, even though he sometimes felt Nicholas did not treat them with as much care as Gwarha did his own set of brushes.

Still, it was only a small thing, not worth commenting on before a suitable occasion had occurred.

The present, Gwarha knew, was far from suitable. He had woken to the screams often enough by now to have developed a routine, to have come to view dealing with them almost as a ritual. Something he need not share with anyone else.

Nicholas was still sweaty, shaky, though he sat quietly enough, permitting Gwarha to brush the fur on his head that grew long over time. Gwarha still found the process fascinating, if somewhat impractical, as if humans stayed children until their death.

The fur between Nicholas's legs more closely resembled normal fur. Gwarha was grateful for that, at least, and grateful that this had allowed him to gift Nicholas with a set of as many as three brushes.

"You are safe," Gwarha said. The first few times, he had spoken in English, thinking the language would be more familiar, more likely to reach across the void of dreams.

Now, he spoke _hwarhath_ , as he might to another warrior - except that any warrior as haunted as Nicholas looked in these moments would have likely taken the option. It would not be weakness. No one would have blamed them, or spoken poorly of them, after.

"You are safe," he repeated. He would not yet touch Nicholas, other than to assist with the brushing. _Soon, though._ "I am here. Come back to me, Nicky. I am here. You are safe."

The questioners had spoken English. Gwarha had not forgotten that, those first few times. He had only misjudged the weight attached to that fact, the way Nicholas's mind worked when it was loosened from reason and lost in memory.

He had not dared hope that his own language, spoken in his own voice, would hold such power.

Nicholas shuddered. His eyes became less wild, more focused. "I am safe," he said. "I am here. We are - sorry, give me a moment. It will come to me."

"I know." Gwarha put aside the brushes, careful to clean them first and put them back in their proper place, giving Nicholas time to collect himself, to trade one set of memories for another, more pleasant one.

 

.04

The jungle was not an enemy. The creatures living in the jungle were not enemies. The buzzing insects that got stuck in one's fur even though they had no business getting stuck there were not enemies.

_Alas._ Gwarha did not think Nicholas had been careless. He was like the tli - wary. Cautious. A tli never sought to quarrel with larger, more dangerous animals.

"You look angry," Nicholas said. He was very pale, even for a human. He had spoken in English.

"I am angry," Gwarha replied in the same language. "You are hurt."

"Only a flesh wound." Nicholas grinned. The _hwarharth_ had spent sufficient time on this planet to be familiar with the insects and the creatures from the jungle, but a cure that would work on a _hwarhath_ might be harmful to a human.

For the moment, Gwarha had decided to do nothing. "Aren't all wounds of the flesh?" True, sometimes a warrior might lose a bit of fur, only that was hardly something to be considered a wounding.

"That's an interesting question," Nicholas said. "We should discuss that another time. Or not. I'm not sure that I really want to bring up all my past wounds and follies. Is it me you're angry with?"

Gwarha imagined walking out of this tent and going hunting in the jungle. A fruitless, senseless effort. The creatures in the jungle were as inedible as the plants and fruits - to _hwarhath_ and humans both. Had any of them been intelligent, they might have obtained value as an enemy, yet now that this had been determined not to be the case, all that remained was to pack up their tents and leave.

"It's this planet," he said. "It's sitting here, knowing I can do nothing." He had sat watching as Nicholas suffered before, but then, Nicholas's suffering had had a purpose. Gwarha had known, too, that it would end at an appropriate time, and that he might act, then. He had waited as much he had watched, and while he had waited, he had thought, and planned, and hoped.

"There's a saying," Nicholas said. "It might apply to my current situation. We say 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger'. I promise you that I have no intention of dying."

"Yet when you rise, you will be considerably weakened," Gwarha said.

"Ah. Then maybe it applies to you and your affections for me."

"Hah."

 

+.01

Nicholas paced. "If you're serious about wanting to do this - "

"There is no 'if'," Gwarha said. "We will speak with the humans. We will determine if they are the enemy. And, regardless of the outcome, we will keep you safe."

_We will keep you._ Gwarha was uncertain if the cause of Nicholas's unease was as he claimed. It had been a long time since he had consciously looked for the liar's mask. Nicholas was Nicholas.

"They'll try to capture me."

Gwarha struggled with the concept. He had done so before, but he still felt that he was missing something, that there was some aspect to Nicholas's fears that escaped him. It was frustrating in the extreme, particularly since he should be focusing his attention on the coming talks, not on calming down Nicholas. "If you do not wish to go with them, I don't see how they can."

Nicholas stopped pacing and looked at him. "I do not want them to capture me."

"If they take you against your will, we'll kill them and get you back," Gwarha said. He did not add that this should be obvious, that the humans must surely know that if they were to try to capture Nicholas, they would be all but committing an act of war - which would be illogical, given the purpose of the talks. "If the talks go poorly, you can leave early," he added, hoping to reassure. "There would be no point to your presence if we are going to have war anyway."

"If the talks go poorly, you'll need me to make them go better," Nicholas said.

Gwarha smiled. "And so you will stay, and we will have peace, and you will go home with me once they are done."

"Hah," Nicholas said.

"Or perhaps we will have war instead," Gwarha said. "It doesn't change anything between us, Nicky. You should stop worrying so much. Have some faith, if not in the humans, then in me."

"I'll try." Nicholas sighed. "I'll still be glad when it's over, though."


End file.
